It’s been a pretty busy week this week. Actually, it’s been a pretty busy month. So, I’m finding it difficult to find much time to do any real posting.

Like Monday, here’s a few random things.

McChurch

Check out the discussion going on over at Mike’s blog. I hadn’t checked the comments since shortly after the post went up, but just discovered that it’s become quite a discussion, and a good one.

WM3

An interesting article recently from the WM3 blog. I posted a few months ago about the WM3, and just now found that there is a blog linked from the WM3.org site.

This article discusses the recent DNA tests and the fact that there is still no DNA evidence against the three. This was not very surprising to me. (I still find it impossible to believe that these three teenagers could have committed the murders and left no evidence that pointed to them.)

Even more interesting, however, is that the article also reveals a WMPD investigation of Terry Hobbs, step-father of one of the victims. Some curious behavior and the discovery (by his ex-wife) of a knife in his possession that belonged to her son has made Hobbs a person of interest, apparently. (On top of that, his ex-wife is now suspicious, questioning if he was involved as well.)

I’ve always thought John Mark Byers - father of one of the other victims - was somehow involved in this. And I’m still inclined to think so, even if he did not wield a knife himself. But now it seems another victim relative is under the microscope. Could it be that the three will eventually walk free? I hope so, because I still believe they have now spent 13 years in prison for something they didn’t do.

Political Cartel

A blog I’ve recently subscribed to is the Political Cartel blog. The posts are written by three Harding University students with an obvious interest in politics. It’s been interesting reading thus far.

One of the authors recently posted an article he wrote for the student newspaper on the visit of Col. Steven Russell to speak at HU which I thought was well done. As an HU grad, it’s particularly nice to see that there are students there today who don’t necessarily see citizenship in Christ’s kingdom also requiring membership in the Republican party.

Friday Playlist

I still haven’t gotten around to getting the new David Crowder disc. I could download it any time, but I’ve been planning to get an actual, physical disc - something that has become pretty rare for me these days - and just haven’t had the chance to pick it up yet.

However, I am still listening to music this week. I’ve been listening to Bright Eyes’ Cassadaga again this week, and even more so The Black Parade from My Chemical Romance. Below are a couple of songs from those discs, along with music newer to my collection - the Josh Joplin Group (live on some cheesy-looking Atlanta morning show) and The Decemberists’ album from a couple of years ago.

“Gravity” Josh Joplin Group	“Sixteen Military Wives” The Decemberists
“I Don’t Love You” My Chemical Romance	“Hot Knives” Bright Eyes

And, of course, Bill O’Reilly is still an idiot.

Tags: bright eyes, josh joplin group, my chemical romance, the decemberists, west memphis three

Random stuff for today…

Heroes

Tonight, after a few months of waiting, Heroes returns with the season 2 premiere. I really enjoyed the first season, and am looking forward to the next chapter of the series. With Lost not returning until after the new year, and the USA series’ I watch - Monk, Psyche and Burn Notice - having finished their summer seasons, Heroes is pretty much it for me right now as far as TV goes.

I’d say that my favorite characters of season one were Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia) and, despite being the “villain”, Gabriel Gray, aka Sylar (Zachary Quinto). I also liked Masi Oka’s Hiro and his sidekick Ando, perhaps because they often reminded me of a couple of good friends of mine from college who also happened to be from Japan. There are a number of new cast members to be introduced this season as well. The DVR is set, so I’m ready for season 2 to kick off tonight.

Remedy

The new David Crowder Band album due in stores tomorrow, titled Remedy. Their last full album A Collision was one of the best albums of this decade, IMO, and I’m anxiously waiting to acquire their newest tomorrow.

Football

You often see, in the world of sports, a player or players benched because they aren’t getting the job done. There’s usually a backup player who then comes in and attempts to do what the starting player was unable to do.

This is what Arkansas needs right now. Not additional players - they have players - but coaches. They need a second team of coaches. The first team needs to be benched and allow someone else to give it a shot.

I am listening to local talk radio all day today in order to see what I’ll hear, but considering the poor coaching of the last two weeks and the arrest of Michael Smith on Sunday, I believe even those who have been defending Houston Nutt and his staff over the last few years will have little to no defense for them. I’ve tried to give him the benefit of the doubt over the last few years, but I think the calls for Nutt to be shown the door out of Fayetteville will be louder than ever this week, and will be made by more people than ever. Even people who have supported him are starting to say it’s time for him to go. I’m inclined to think that, this time, those voices just may be heard and the Nutt era could end at season’s end.

I was discussing this with some folks from my church at lunch yesterday, and I mentioned that - if this comes to pass - Arkansas could find themselves in a similar situation as they did when searching for a basketball coach earlier this year. Kentucky - perhaps the best college basketball job out there - was also searching for a coach. They ended up with Arkansas’ top choice (although I think Arkansas ended up with a great young coach in John Pelphrey nevertheless, and am looking forward to seeing what he does with the Hogs this winter.)

If - as is also suspected - Lloyd Carr were to end up being relieved of his duties at Michigan, and Les Miles were to leave LSU for his alma mater and replace Carr - Arkansas would again have to deal with competing with a program that will likely get their first choice among available coaches. Odds are that anyone out there seeking an SEC job would go to LSU before Arkansas. Many seemed to think the Hogs could have had a shot at Butch Davis last year - which may or may not be true - but the way things are looking now, it’s a shame they didn’t try.

Of course, that’s all just speculation for now. Arkansas could still end up 9-3 this year - all of their games are winnable with the probable exception of LSU. And obviously I hope to see them do it despite the downside - that it might give this coaching staff another year. However, I think there will have to be a lot of changes and/or improvements to come close to 9-3 at this point.

Shaun

And, finally, how can you not love Shaun the Sheep?

Tags: arkansas razorbacks, david crowder band, heroes, shaun the sheep

I mentioned in my earlier post that Rich’s Lufkin concert was all available on youTube. I later thought to look for the Homeless Man video - which I also mentioned - and found that it is there as well. If you have a little time and haven’t seen it, watch it. It’s somewhat of a documentary about Rich’s life and music, featuring some concert footage (mostly from Lufkin) as well as words about Rich from family, friends and fellow musicians.

Here is part 1, with links to the remainder below:

The rest:

• part 2
• part 3a
• part 3b
• part 4
• part 5
• part 6

Tags: rich mullins

I still miss Rich Mullins.

I wrote about his death two years ago on this date. Today is the 10 year anniversary of his death.

I’ve never been able to decide which album of his was my favorite. I go between Never Picture Perfect, either of The World As Best As I Remember It albums, and his final disc, The Jesus Record, released after his death. I do believe, however, that I would say that “If I Stand” is my favorite song.

Here’s a recent article from CCM about Rich and Keith Green, who also died tragically in the midst of his career and, seemingly, far too soon.

If you’ve never read James Bryan Smith’s biography of Rich, titled Rich Mullins : An Arrow Pointing To Heaven, check it out. It’s definitely worth the time to get even more of a glimpse of who Richard Wayne Mullins was and what he was all about. (I would also highly recommend the video Homeless Man : The Restless Heart of Rich Mullins.)

Here’s a good collection of Rich quotes, many from one of Rich’s final concerts in Lufkin, Texas. And, by the way, that’s another video I’d recommend. It’s not the best quality, but it’s terrific nonetheless.

There’s not really anyone out there like Rich anymore. The church still misses him, and so do I. Sometimes, I wonder who the next Rich Mullins will be. Then I realize how foolish that thought is. There was only one Rich Mulilns. There simply won’t be another.

But I thank God there was one.

---

Here’s a couple of clips from the Lufkin concert (which appears to be on youTube in many pieces). First, a clip containing the songs “While the Nations Rage” and “If I Stand” (and part of “Screen Door”):

And another concert favorite, “Screen Door” (in it’s entirety):

Tags: rich mullins

After the weekend in college football, which included a Duke win over Northwestern, snapping their 22 game losing streak, here are a few season records to date, as Scrapper Nation has pointed out:

• Duke 1-2
• Michigan 1-2
• Notre Dame 0-3

What are the odds of that? Sure, Micigan’s will likely be better in a few weeks, but I’m not so sure about Notre Dame.

Duke travels to Notre Dame in November, and the two may have very similar records at that time. Is it possible? Should Duke fans dare to dream of a win in South Bend???

Regardless, after watching Michigan beat down the Irish and USC pummel a ranked Nebraska team in Omaha this weekend, how ugly is the USC-ND game in October going to be?

And, one more thing - it’s time for Lou Holtz to retire from television. He said on the air last Thursday night - he actually said this - that if Notre Dame loses to Michigan, it would be hard for the Irish to return to a BCS bowl for the third straight year. Hard? How about impossible. It wasn’t going to happen if they beat Michigan, but it’s certainly not happening with a loss. The man has lost his mind. And nobody in his current role on ESPN should be able to reference a team using the pronoun “we” on the air, no matter how long they coached at the school.

Tags: duke football

I’m really loving The Trumpet Child, the new disc by Over The Rhine. I just can’t seem to get enough of Karin Bergquist’s voice. I’m normally not into music sung by females, although I can’t really explain why. I just don’t have many female singers in my collection. The overwhelming majority of my music features dudes singing. There are, however, a few exceptions, and OTR is now one of them.

“The Trumpet Child” liveI’d heard of OtR a number of years ago but had never listened to them until recently. They have quite a catalog of music from 1991 to the present and I hope to check out more of it in time. This new disc, along with Live From Nowhere Vol 1 - both of which I acquired from eMusic - are among my favorites right now. The albums are different - with Trumpet being a bit of a departure from their other work. But they’re both very good. So, if you’ve never heard them, check out Over The Rhine. And if you have, but haven’t heard The Trumpet Child, check it out today.

The (not-so-great-quality) video included is a live performance of the title track. Here are the lyrics.

Tags: eMusic, over the rhine, the trumpet child

Tags: david crowder band

I’ve been too busy to get this done since Sunday evening, so here it is a couple of days late…

Justine Henin was never really challenged in the women’s final Saturday night. She won her second grand slam this year without losing a set (she also did so at the French.) She’s the best out there right now. She was all smiles as she received her trophy and $1.4 million check. Even during an unfortunate slip up by Dick Enberg, who called her Justine Henin-Hardenne in the post-match ceremonies (she divorced her husband earlier this year.)

As for the men, I was, of course, disappointed that my man Novak Djokovic fell in the finals (6-7, 6-7, 4-6). I was particularly surprised it was a straight set match. It was sort of a good news/bad news day for Novak. Good news, you’ve reached your first grand slam final. Bad news, Roger Federer is on the other side of the net. Djokovic had his chances. He had five set points in the first set. He served at 6-5, 40-0 and Federer would not go down, forcing a tiebreak, which he won. In the second, he then had two break points on Federers serve - also set points - but could not break him. Federer again forced (and won) a tiebreak. After that, it was pretty evident that it was over.

The thing I loved about Djokovic is that after the match and during the ceremonies, he was always smiling. He seems like a guy who is having a good time, despite the loss. Of course, he may also be smiling because he knows his time is coming, and coming soon. The gap is closing. Federer is still the best, and he continues to amaze me with his shotmaking ability. He seems to be able to make shots nobody else can, even when out of position or off balance. He almost seems superhuman at times, and appears to simply refuse to lose.

But despite that, he’s having to work harder. Nadal, had he remained healthy in the fifth set, may have upset him at Wimbledon. Federer had to play his best against two great matches by Roddick and Djokovic to hold on at the Open. He will be challenged, I believe, in the coming year by Nadal and Djokovic, and perhaps others. But for now - with his 12th grand slam title - he remains the best, and he proved it again this week.

So, another Open has come and gone. Each year, though, I’m reminded that it is the best of the grand slams, and this year was no exception.

Tags: justine henin, novak djokovic, roger federer, u.s. open

The U.S. Open is down to the final four’s. There’s been a lot of great matches this year, and I hope even more to come in the final few days.

The Roger Federer-Andy Roddick match was a great match, despite only being three sets. Roddick played probably as well as he could have, and still lost in straight sets. That says a lot about where Federer is right now, when a guy who won the Open a few years ago plays his best tennis and Roger still wins in three. Roddick not only played great in his loss, he also was very gracious in his loss. He talked about his own play and said there wasn’t much more he could do. Basically, he was saying, Federer is better than me right now.

Contrast that with Serena Williams, who, after her loss to Justine Henin a couple of nights ago, stated in the press conference that Henin “made a lot of lucky shots.” Williams lost 7-6, 6-1. Sorry, but you don’t lose a set 6-1 on “lucky shots.” Asked if she thought she lost the match or Henin won, she basically stated that she had lost it. It’s worth pointing out that Henin - who is #1 in the world, by the way - has owned Serena this year. She’s beaten her in three of the four grand slams this year (and Henin didn’t play at the Austrailian, or maybe it would have been four.) But instead of recognizing this, she chooses to dismiss anything Henin did and claim that she just didn’t play well. If this was her first time showing a lack of sportsmanship, you might write it off to a bad day, but she’s said things like this before. She really just needs to get over herself. And at some point, you’d think she’s going to have to admit that Henin is better than she is right now. Everyone else knows it, and she does, too.

I was sad to see Raphael Nadal in the fourth round to fellow Spaniard David Ferrer. Ferrer played some great tennis, and has since advanced to the semifinals to play Novak Djokovic. Nadal has had some trouble with one of his knees, so that could have factored in as well. Still, it was a fun match to watch and hopefully Nadal will be healthy next September.

Novak Djokovic - who, of course, is my pick to win - continues to battle with each match, but had a relatively easy match (three sets, although by no means easy) with Carlos Moya last night. After several tough four or five set matches, it was good for him to get off the court a little quicker last night. He’ll need some rest to prepare for Saturday and, if he wins, Sunday, potentially playing back to back. I’m still hoping he can break through with his first grand slam, but after watching Federer’s match with Rodick, I wonder if there’s really any hope or not.

There was a stat last night that in the last 29 tournaments in which both Federer and Nadal played, one of those two won the title 25 of those 29 times. That’s pretty impressive. Djokovic was asked about the Federer/Nadal rivalry in the post-match press conference a couple of days ago and Novak stated that many people are, understandably, focusing on Federer and Nadal but missing out on some of the other players. He said he’s one of those who is hoping to make that “group of two” a little bit bigger. Based on his play this year, I’d say Djokovic is closer than anyone to joining that group, and I’m hoping he can start being mentioned regularly with those two after this weekend.

Another stat I heard this week. With Roddick’s loss, the last remaining American man is out of the tournament. This is the first year since 1988 that no American man played in a grand slam final. That’s a pretty good streak. I can think of Chang, Courier, Sampras, Agassi, Martin, and Roddick during that stretch. Hopefully, guys like James Blake, Donald Young and John Isner (along with Roddick, of course) can start a new streak to last another 18 years or more.

Please, can someone tell USA Network to fire Tracy Austin? She’s horrible. I hate listening to her. They need to unload her and bring in Mary Carrillo. Carrillo does work for ESPN, and fortunately, CBS, where she appeared over the weekend during CBS’s coverage of the Open. She’s so much better, it’s not even close. Jim Courier is not much better, but at least he’s only in the studio between matches. Small doses of Courier is bearable. Long matches with Austin whining on and on is not.

John McEnroe, of course, is great and has been on both USA and CBS. I love him, and am so glad he moved behind the mic once his playing days were done. The funniest moment I’ve heard in the booth this week came at McEnroe’s expense during a match over the weekend when Dick Enberg commented on McEnroe’s AmEx commercial. This commercial has been on constantly - seemingly every commercial break during the coverage on both USA and CBS. It’s a great commercial, of course, but it’s been on A LOT. Anyway, after Enberg’s mention, Carrillo deadpanned, “I haven’t seen it yet.” Well, it cracked me up…

Looking to the weekend, on the women’s side, it’s easy to see the semifinal between Venus Williams and Justine Henin as the championship, even though one of the two Russians on the other side - Svetlana Kuznetsova - is a former U.S. Open champion. Nobody has beaten both Williams sisters in the same grand slam since Martina Hingis in the late 90’s. Venus has played great at Wimbledon and in New York, so it’s going to be a tough task for Henin. However, I still think she’s going to do it and win it all.

On the men’s side, obviously it’s hard to pick against Federer. He’s beaten Nikolay Davydenko 14 times, I believe. Davydenko has beaten Federer zero times. I don’t see things changing tomorrow. The Djokovic-Ferrer match is a hard call. I’m still with Novak, but Ferrer has been impressive in this tournament, and his quickness and ability to run down balls may serve him well tomorrow. Still, I’m sticking with Novak to win it all, despite how unlikely it seems.

Tags: andy roddick, john mcenroe, justine henin, novak djokovic, serena williams, u.s. open, venus williams

Well, I think we’ve pissed off the Methodists. Here’s the story:

We wanted to put my son in a preschool type program this year, just as we’d done with my daughter when she turned three. My daughter went to the program at the Madison Church of Christ, which was literally right around the corner from where we lived at the time in Madison, Alabama. Their property was adjacent to our subdivision, so it was more convenient than the one at our own church (which was in SE Huntsville and about 20 minutes away), and from what we’d heard, a better program. She loved it and so did we. She learned a lot during her time there and was very prepared for kindergarten when that time came. Therefore, we were hoping for something similar for our son.

My wife, after some research and also based on reports from friends who had children there, had determined that a particular Presbyterian church here in town was the right choice. It seemed most similar to where our daughter had attended. Unfortunately, when she got him on the waiting list, he was 22nd on the list. It didn’t appear he’d get a spot. So, we looked a couple of other places, and ended up putting him on the waiting list at a local Methodist church’s program as well. Their program was fine, although, obviously, it was not our first choice. But, we’d pretty much given up on our first choice. It was the week before the preschool started, and it appeared there was no hope of getting in for this year.

They both started last week and we were still on the waiting lists. Well, the call came last week - the Methodist program had an open spot for two days a week. We discussed it briefly and decided to go ahead and enroll him. It wasn’t choice #1, but it was still a good opportunity for him. Today would be his first day. He began talking about “going to school” and was excited. We took him up this morning and dropped him off.

When my wife returned home, she had received a phone call. You guessed it - the Presbyterian church had called and they now had an opening as well - for three days a week.

She called me - “what should we do?”. Basically, it came down to this - it was our first choice, where we wanted him to be, and, on top of that, it is, all tuition and fees considered, around $10/month cheaper and he goes an extra day each week. So, $10/month cheaper, plus 4-5 extra days per month, plus it’s the program we wanted him in and he also has friends who attend there as well, we thought it was the right call.

My wife called them and informed them before going to pick him up that his first day would also be his last. Evidently, the lady who runs the program was not quite as friendly when my wife picked him up as she was when we dropped him off today, which I can understand, of course. One good thing is that, since they still have people on the waiting list, they’ll most likely fill his spot right away.

And, of course, we both felt pretty bad about making the change, pulling him out after less than a day. Had yesterday not been a holiday, we probably would have heard from them yesterday and been able to make the change without him actually attending a day first. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the way it happened.

So, Thursday we’ll go through it all again - new school, new teachers, new kids Fortunately, that should be the last time.

Tags: (no tags)